FBI Director Kash Patel Files $250 Million Lawsuit Against The Atlantic Over Article on Alleged ‘Excessive Drinking and Unexplained Absences’

AP Photo/John Amis

President Donald Trump’s FBI director, Kash Patel, filed a lawsuit against The Atlantic on Monday, demanding no less than $250 million after the magazine published an article claiming he had “alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.”

Patel’s lawyers accused The Atlantic and staff writer Sarah Fitzpatrick of publishing “a sweeping, malicious, and defamatory hit piece” against him on Friday and claimed that the allegations in the article were “false,” “obviously fabricated,” and “designed to destroy Director Patel’s reputation and drive him from office.”

After dedicating an entire page of the lawsuit to boasting about Patel’s “historic” achievements, Patel’s lawyers claimed that the FBI director was “entitled to compensatory, special, and punitive damages, in an amount not less than two hundred and fifty million dollars ($250,000,000), as well as disgorgement of all income Defendants have earned by virtue of their lies about Director Patel.”

In an article titled, “The FBI Director Is MIA,” on Friday, Fitzpatrick cited “more than two dozen” unnamed “witnesses” who, among other things, alleged that Patel had been engaged in “bouts of excessive drinking” and “unexplained absences” which “often alarmed officials at the FBI and the Department of Justice.”

“Several officials told me that Patel’s drinking has been a recurring source of concern across the government. They said that he is known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication,” reported Fitzpatrick. “Early in his tenure, meetings and briefings had to be rescheduled for later in the day as a result of his alcohol-fueled nights, six current and former officials and others familiar with Patel’s schedule told me.”

Fitzpatrick also reported that “on multiple occasions in the past year,” members of the FBI director’s security detail “had difficulty waking Patel because he was seemingly intoxicated, according to information supplied to Justice Department and White House officials.”

“A request for ‘breaching equipment’—normally used by SWAT and hostage-rescue teams to quickly gain entry into buildings—was made last year because Patel had been unreachable behind locked doors, according to multiple people familiar with the request,” she continued, claiming that “some of Patel’s colleagues at the FBI worry that his personal behavior has become a threat to public safety.”

In a statement to The Atlantic on Friday, Patel reportedly said, “Print it, all false, I’ll see you in court—bring your checkbook.”

The Atlantic responded to Patel’s lawsuit on Monday with the statement: “We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit.”

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